Share review of Beversbrook Medical Centre

Thank you for this feedback - it is super helpful and I thank you for your patience and for the time taken to write this review. I am sorry that you had to wait a long time to see Dr Church - unfortunately April was a difficult month for us to book appointments with Dr Church as he had a weeks annual leave. We also had Easter and the associated bank holidays to contend with, which of course has an impact on our working week. I hope that this was explained to you when you enquired as to why you had to wait over three weeks for the next available appointment with Dr Church. We did have appointments available with other GPs sooner than this, which again you should have been offered and I apologise if this wasn't the case. Taking into consideration Dr Church's annual leave, the Easter break (and the fact that Dr Church is not in clinic on Tuesdays) I am pleased to inform you that you waited only six of Dr Church's available working days to book a routine appointment with him. Whilst I appreciate that this is still a delay I hope that this goes some way to demonstrate that three weeks is not a typical wait time and that we did book you the earliest possible appointment with your named GP. Thank you also for your suggestion that Receptionists should ask the patient if their request for an appointment is urgent. We have a policy to ensure that Receptionists do not ask patients this question as it can come across as antagonistic and we advise our non clinical team against triaging patients. However, we have implemented a new service called Doctor Link, which we are trialling to help ensure that patients are receiving the right care to treat their symptoms. Patients are encouraged to use Doctor Link before contacting the Surgery to establish the urgency of care they need. More information about Doctor Link can be found via our Facebook Site https://www.facebook.com/Beversbrook/?ref=bookmarks or alternatively via our website https://www.beversbrook.com/patient-services/making-an-appointment/.. We do have on the day appointments available and when these are fully booked we offer a call back from a GP. These appointments are available upon request as we do not have the capacity to offer every patient the opportunity to be seen urgently, especially if this is not appropriate and may cause a delay for someone else with a more urgent need from being seen. I do hope that this goes some way to explain the wait for you to see Dr Church, however I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you further and you can e-mail me at emmybutcher@nhs.net should you wish to make an appointment. Very kindest regards - Emmy Butcher, Managing Partner.